know yr wolves

Here are two book reviews I wrote for Lambda Literary a couple of weeks ago. The first is of Radical by E.M. Kokie. It’s a dystopian novel set in the present day, and it hits a little close to home. The second was the quintessential summer slow burn, Phantom Limbs, by Paula Garner.

I’ve had the amazing opportunity this past summer to take a writing workshop with Benjamin Alire Saenz, the author of Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe(among other fabulous things). (You can see the wacky glory that is a baker’s dozen of young adult literature writers above.) Ben was an incredible teacher and workshop leader, and that whole week was amazing. You can read about that experience here.

My parents have the relationship that I’ve always dreamed of—the sort of relationship, I think, that a lot of people dream of. It’s the kind of relationship we’re taught, through movies, TV shows and books, that we’re supposed to aspire to.

They met when my mother was 19 and my dad was 23, and they’ve been, for the past 31 years, each other’s one-and-only in every sense of the phrase. My mom has called him her soulmate and her best friend. She told me recently that if she hadn’t met him, she didn’t think she’d be with anyone at all.

My life, on the other hand, has been markedly different.

I wrote about comparing my parents’ relationship style to the way I’ve learned and choose to love. It turns out maybe we’re not so different after all, and that I learned a lot from them, even though on the surface our styles are very different.

A lovey-dovey personal essay just in time for Valentine’s Day. And my first essay for The Establishment, which I’m completely thrilled about! I love The Establishment!

More specifically, passing beloved fandoms down to youths (or, conversely, failing to do this! What happens when your fandoms just don’t TAKE? How does that make you FEEL?)

From my Facebook plea:

Friends! Nerds! Countrywomen! (and also dudes i ~guess~) 😉

I’m writing an article for The Learned Fangirl on passed down fandoms, and I wanted to know if you’re interested in being interviewed! Doesn’t have to be your kid, just has to be *a* kid — your little sibling, your cousins, kids you babysit for. I’ll take any and all fandoms (right now I’ve got people for Doctor Who, Marvel comics, and Star Wars, but I’m into duplicates) and I just wanna know things like

How did you get into this fandom (how old were you; if it’s a fandom that’s been around for a while, did someone you looked up to get you into it?)
2. What was your padawan’s initial reaction to the show/movie/comic book (you see what i did there)
3. How do you address the more ~problematic~ elements of a given fandom with impressionable young minds, particularly from a feminist standpoint? (Moffat’s fuckery on DW, the Leia slave girl bikini thing; the dearth of diversity and representation in general, WHY ISN’T THERE A FEMALE DOCTOR YET)
4. Does experiencing your fandom with a newbie change things for you?
5. What fandomy things do you do together? Cosplay? ComiCon? Do you write fan fiction together? Or write your own comics?

PLZ AND THANK U

Reach out to me at christinatesoro@yahoo.com if any of this appeals to you!

There is a difference between hesitating and saying, firmly, no. What is the name for that place? I imagine it to be vast, to be full of women who said okay, who whispered it, or didn’t. I imagine it to be full of shadows, and a difficult place to leave.

I started writing this essay in Freiburg, in Roxane Gay’s non-fiction writing class, Beyond the Self. Now, it’s up at The Toast. It was shared on Scarleteen’s Facebook page. And Jess Zimmerman tweeted it and said, “Men are terrified of writing like this.”

My Teen Diary asked me to read my teen diary & write about it, so of course I did. It was super angsty but also really fun! And, excitingly, it scored me my first TOP HIGHLIGHT, which I present for you here:

The body is not a temple, it is a body, and it is yours to do with as you will. The disrespect and callousness a person shows you does not mean that you are creature undeserving of love, of tenderness. It doesn’t even mean, really, that those who treat you callously are bad people—they’re just young, just careless, just taught different, though similarly toxic, things about sex than you are taught.

I also discovered this photo of me & my one true love, cardboard Legolas Greenleaf: